In many sports such as ice hockey, ball hockey and field hockey, a player is required to control a puck, ball or the like with the blade of a stick. During game play or practice, it is desired that players keep their heads up and control the puck, ball or the like with the stick by feel rather than sight primarily for two reasons. One reason is that many of these sports are contact sports. If a player plays with their head up, the likelihood of an injury resulting from an unforeseen collision is substantially reduced. Also, by keeping their head up, a player is better able to see a developing play allowing the puck, ball or the like to be passed or shot to the most appropriate player or location.
Unfortunately, at many levels, players are not taught to play with their heads up even though a player who learns to do so will play at a higher level and will reduce the chance of injury. To deal with the above-identified problem and to instil in a player's mind that their head should be kept up during game play or practice, hockey training tools have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,466 to Kaiser discloses a hockey helmet attachment to obstruct the downward vision of a hockey helmet wearer. The attachment is in the form of a flat arcuate member formed of flexible opaque material. The arcuate member is attached to the helmet so that it extends forwardly of the helmet in a generally horizontal plane and below the eye opening of the helmet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,753 to Scarry discloses a hockey stick training device to be attached to the shaft of the hockey stick intermediate the handle and the blade to obscure the blade from vision. The hockey stick training device includes a planar rectangular, opaque member to obscure the entire hockey stick blade from vision. A connector to secure the hockey stick training device to the shaft extends upwardly from the rectangular member and is integrally formed therewith.
Although the Scarry patent discloses a hockey stick training device to be attached to the shaft of a hockey stick to teach a player to play hockey with their head up, problems exist. In particular, the configuration and dimensions of the planar rectangular member adversely affect the weight and balance of the hockey stick to which the hockey stick training device is attached. Also, the connector used to attach the hockey stick training device to the hockey stick shaft has been found to be unsatisfactory resulting in movement of the hockey stick training device along the hockey stick shaft during use. Accordingly, an improved hockey stick training device is desired.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel hockey stick training device.